Description:
Away from our initial debut in the RC world, ZOHD has evolved into a mature, committed and responsible company.

The Talon GT “Rebel” is the continuation of our new series called MKII, started with the highly acclaimed Dart XL “Extreme”. This series will feature an incredible set of high quality and ORIGINAL innovations, intended to give you the FPV aircraft for casual, mid and long range.

With MKII, without cutting any corners, we went straight ahead with 100% biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials, metal gear servos, high quality power plants, protection for leading edges and skids, wing fences, vortex generators, dedicated bays for FPV gear, revolutionary multi-cam hard noses and much, much more.

Talon GT is one of the most capable FPV planes in 2019, regardless wingspan and price. Can compete in range and speed with planes twice as big and twice the cost without blinking. Specifically design to fly with modern flight controllers, high power video transmitters and long range systems, Talon GT will give you the best FPV experience to date. Easy assembly, setup and maintenance… A true king of the skies!

This is it! ZOHD Talon GT “Rebel” is ready to hit the skies around the world, and this is just the beginning… join us in this incredible adventure!

Part of this project I was looking forward to: using safety pins for hinging. Connected up the rudder post...turned out FANTASTIC!

Having that little bit of metal in there seems more like real, hinged control surfaces than CyA-soaked plastic ones.
They went together in one session/sitting; I don't think it is too much more effort than pre-made hinges either, at least as far as alignment/gapping.

Stabilizer is not based on any particular airfoil beyond 'TLAR'--a slab with a modest amount of symmetry, eg: flattened lenticular shape. I had skipped a step that would have imparted some curvature into the slotted base plate(..moisture + heat molding..); I can still do it but its a bit tougher this far along in its build.

Being thin, lacking glass composite and having a wide, mid-chord, mounting slot to 'rob' strength, leading edge sheeting seems the way to go.

I'm not 'seeking' any hobby grade ply veneer; I chose bamboo flat strips from a thrift store dinner mat...edge-sanded them into planks and joined them to form sheets. About 20 minutes of judicious sanding gave me 2, wafer thin plank sheets perfect for the task.

Now spliced together in a forward swept, shallow 'V', such that the bamboo's long grain intersects/crosses on a bias, hopefully adding torsional stiffness.

Tx06 was sent for review by Banggood.com
The DVR was purchased from Banggood.com

I have wanted to do something like this for a long time , and the catalyst was Banggood sending me the Eachine Tx06 for review / testing .

Eachine TX06 FPV camera unit :

I dont have video recording FPV goggles , so I cant directly record the video stream ..
What I can tell you is that the Tx06 has the cleanest video transmission I have experienced to date .
It is actually surprisingly good for the price .

I did try to use the Tx06 with two of my micro quads , and whilst they did work well for the tx06 , the batteries in the tiny quads could not sustain the extra current of the Tx06 unit . ( around 280mAh ) .
One gave me 45 seconds of flight , and the E010 I mounted the Tx06 on gave me about 90 seconds of flight .. ( Might need a battery upgrade )
I did finally mount the Tx06 on my old now WL toys 959 quadcopter which uses 1000mAh 1s .. This battery was easily able to handle the Tx06 and still gave around 8 minutes of flight .

Micro DVR :

Since I cant record the video stream , the next best thing would be an affordable DVR ..
The camera and DVR are not plug and play compatible .. Some soldering and splicing is required ...
Power - The DVR requires power , and for this I spliced into the + and - cables running to the Tx06 ..
Video - Well , yes . I spliced into the VIDEO OUT cable for the video signal .
The DVR came with a 3...Continue Reading

I was right .. I had to tap into the + and - from the battery as well the video OUT signal wire ..
So it might look complicated with all that wiring , but simply eliminate whats not needed and your talking 3 wires ..

All that's needed is a micro SD card and a 1s battery for power ..
Now apparently the Camera pulls about 280mAh and the DVR about 260mAh ...
So we are talking about , half an Amp region for current draw .. Just got to make sure your battery can handle that .

With all of the setup and calibration complete it’s time to do the receiver Self Check. Before doing the receiver Self Check a model needs to be set up on the Taranis. I use the Taranis OpenTx Companion 2.1.1 as I prefer to have a hard-wired connection to transfer information to the memory of the transmitter. Others may prefer using the wireless Lua script. I’ll be using OpenTx Companion 2.1.9. The Pictures are in order, read the material below and then just follow the pictures.

Open Companion 2.1.9 and create a new model. Click on ‘File” then ‘New’, and a new document.eepe window will pop up. If this is the first time, double click on ‘General Settings’ (Picture 1). There are just a few items that need to be set here. (Picture 2) Skip down to ‘Battery Warning’. I use a lipo and needed to change the amount here to 10.5v so not to over drain the transmitter battery. I changed the ‘Battery Meter Range’ to 10.0v and 12.6. I fly mode 2 where other parts of the world fly mode 1. This can be selected in the ‘Stick Mode’ selection. All my planes are set up with AERT or Aileron, Elevator, Rudder, Throttle. Just select your preference. ‘Measurement Units’ refers to either ’Imperial’ or ‘Metric, I use Imperial. Skip to the right side and set the ‘Country Code’, ‘Timeshift from UTC’, and the ‘Voice Language’. That’s it for this screen.

Below the General Settings are the model storage areas numbered 01 through 60. Double click on the first free Model....Continue Reading

I've now gotten 1/2 way thru constructing the stabilizer and verifying it's fit/alignment atop the Vertical. Currently sits @+2.5 deg. incidence, but too early for any fixed decalage setting.
I 'DID' cheat here: I've added a couple strips of CF ribbon across thinned wood on its central mounting plate, as the mounting slot has a glaring fracture/stress point.

A bit torsionally flexy, but not after I attach some wafer-thin, bamboo sheeting along its leading edge and a few cross braces. The acrylic plastic base material is rather heavy; it will all be cut/'fretted' out; cover will be either mylar or Tyvek.
Elevators will also be foam & safety-pin hinged and I've only sketched out possible linkage patterns for moving those angled halves smoothly.

I should be working it now, but I've put off posting updates longer than I expected....Continue Reading

Thanks for taking a peek here. If you like, my youtube channel (Mike's RC Corner) is full of these videos and love to have you along for the ride!

I got this Desert truck in for review and I'm very impressed. It's a good beginner to intermediate RC! It's a big hit with my son he loves to drive it. Here's my video doing a overview and I take it out for a spin so you can see how it runs. More info can be found in the video description if you are interested!

Well, it is as I feared not as I had hoped.
The best candidate for a 1S LIPO setup is a Brushed Motor & Prop.
I have the Airframe Design approx. 75% complete.
Now that I have the power system picked out it's time to complete the Airframe.
Stay tuned for updates on this side project of mine to develop a nice flying Backyard/Indoor Nano Plane.

Here is a link to the Brushed Motor and Prop that won the thrust contest:

I DID slowly get back to modding this FX-706 Glider!
What should have taken a few weeks...along with the inherent 'trial & error' of unconventional building off ill-defined 'plans'--has taken me 2+ months.
Oh, well...I've still 'enjoyed' the journey/challenge.

One issue slowed me down initially: the Vertical Tail as I designed it didn't have enough torsional stiffness. When I mounted the stock, foam stabilizer in position, I could waggle and twist it with my hand quite easily. Aerodynamic flutter--"waiting-to-happen"!

This was after I had routed & embedded the elevator cable guide to its 'exit' point & thought I'd be ready to mount the rudder, stab then skin over everything. I'm still determined to do as much of this build WITHOUT carbon & minimal glassing, as using this shoddy, Harbor Freight 2-part epoxy is a PITAS to get right!
Only '5 min.'-working time--thats when it is cool outside!

Of course, weight budget for this tail end looms over everything. I haven't put it on a scale yet but I'm watching how far the 'CoG' creeps back behind the wing saddle T.E., when balanced on my finger or ruler's edge!

Pros:
- This is fun!
- It could be great for a beginner, but I recommend the RTF version for that
- Can be converted into a hover craft or quad
- Larger 220 batteries work
- There is potential to FPV this quadcopter wing

Cons:
- Short flight times , even with the 220's, but they're not quite as short